Between June and November 2020, the ISVOR cultural Association organized "The Music Lab" - a cultural project which aims to stimulate the music education, focusing on rural schools in Romania. In its first edition, the project was presented at the beginning of November in ten schools in Vrancea County, the villages of Berislăvești, Bărbătești (Bodești village), Budești, Golești (Popești village), GuraVăii (Bujoreni village), Mălaia, Muereasca (Muereasca de Sus village), Racovița (Copăceni village), Sălătrucel, Stoenești. On this occasion, each of the ten schools visited received from the ISVOR Cultural Association a complete electronic keyboard (each equipped with a stand and audio headphones for individual study), as well as a series of alternative teaching materials developed within the project.The electronic keyboards and teaching materials thus entered the endowment of the schools, laying the foundations of " The Music Lab".

In order to be able to use the keyboards, the children will have to wait a little longer - until they return to the classrooms;Instead, the teaching materials have already reached them: students from Vâlcea schools use, in online music education classes, the "Dictionary of Musical Instruments" - a series of 15 short films about guitar, clarinet, horn, double bass, bassoon, flute, oboe,percussion, piano, trombone, trumpet, tuba, violin, viola, cello. These musical instrument presentation films,in clear and user-friendly language, provide basic information in 4-5 minutes of animated illustration (from history and component parts to the sounds emitted and musical themes specific to or associated with those instruments).The musical material was recorded in August at the National University of Music in Bucharest (UNMB) together with 16 young musicians. ISVOR Cultural Association prepares its next edition, publishing a form where interested schools can express their intention to participate (available at www.laboratedumestica.ro ) Until then, however, the results of the first edition are available to all teachers - and students: both the "Dictionary of Musical Instruments" and other educational and informative materials (portraits of composers appearing in the "Dictionary", interviews with young musicians and musicologists involved in making the materials etc.) can be found for free on the platform www.laboratoruldemuzica.ro.

"The Music Lab" was born at the initiative of a couple of independent artists: Oana Ivașcu, a musician in love with illustration, and Daniel Ivașcu, a visual artist passionate about music, Ilinca's and Sofia's parents, the founders of the Imago Mundi ensemble and the ISOR Cultural Association.They wanted to support music education in primary and secondary schools, thus stimulating the development of creativity - necessary later in addressing any field of activity. As is well known, studying a musical instrument improves memory skills and distributive attention.

"The Music Lab" (www.laboratoruldemuzica.ro) is an online platform for non-formal music education."The Music Lab"is a cultural project co-financed by the National Cultural Fund Administration (AFCN), organized by the ISVOR Cultural Association in partnership with the National University of Music Bucharest (UNMB), with the support of FlyMusic.ro. Media partners: Radio Romania Musical, Radio Romania Cultural, Days and Nights, BookHub, Art Agency.

More information about the " The Music Lab" can be found on www.laboratoruldemuzica.ro, and about the projects of the ISVOR Cultural Association on www.isvor.ro